BUAV welcomes China's first moves to accept non-animal testing

30/07/2013

Following recent discussions by Cruelty Free International's Director of Policy, Dr Nick Palmer, with Chinese regulators, the BUAV (founder of Cruelty Free International) has welcomed the acceptance of six key non-animal alternative test methods in the new ‘Guidelines for the Testing of Chemicals’. This publication revises a previous 2004 version and governs the official ‘China New Chemical Substance Notification’ process. This will for the first time enable manufacturers of chemicals to launch new substances in China with non-animal safety testing.

Cruelty Free International Chief Executive, Michelle Thew commented: ‘This is a very important first step towards acceptance of alternatives for the testing of cosmetics. Now that non-animal alternatives are being accepted for chemical ingredients, Cruelty Free International is hopeful that we can make progress with the call to accept such methods to also test cosmetics, instead of the current use of animals.'

'At present, cosmetics companies who sell their products in China are not accepted by Cruelty Free International’s Humane Cosmetics Standard, since animal tests are still required by the authorities, but the new decision opens the prospect of a radical change in the coming years.‘